I stayed at the Ohana
Keauhou Beach Resort in Hawaii, after my advisor went back to the mainland
and I had a few days to travel and hang out after we'd recovered from
our observing run. This hotel was
really nice, and I liked them even more when they gave me a "substantial
upgrade" on my room when
my original room wasn't ready on time. It was shibby.
This is the view looking east towards Mauna Loa from the lanai (private
balcony) in my room.
Those fields are all coffee farms.
This is the view looking north towards Kailua-Kona (and the Kona airport),
at the Keauhou
Bay itself. The black rocks in the water are all lava, and you
can kind of see that the bay
is protected by a lava breakwater, which made it perfect for snorkeling,
and lots of cool fish
liked to hang out in the bay. And, of course, giant sea turtles.
This is looking down at the hotel pool from my room. It was actually
about the same
temperature as the ocean. There's a hot tub too, but I felt
it was too hot out for that.
Looking at Keauhou Bay from the pool.
The hotel jutted out over a rocky lagoon that was part of Keauhou Bay.
The hotel had
a really nice cafe on the first floor too, and you could just sit there
with your mai tai
and look at the bay and all the turtles.
After I went to the summit of Mauna Kea on April 7th, I met up with
my advisor, Crystal, and
we went to watch the sunset at Hapuna State Beach. It was one
of the most beautiful
beaches I've ever been to, and the sand was really soft and the water
was really warm.
While we were watching the sun set, we saw some humpback whales off
the coast.
The sun setting in the west. If you look really carefully you
can almost see Guam.
Just kidding. Lovely though, isn't it?
We tried to see the green flash when the sun set, but no such luck.
It would be almost
too lucky to see both humpbacks and the green flash in one night.